Sunday, March 12, 2017

Window Wanderland

In February I went to a lovely community event called Window Wanderland. It was started in Bristol and now takes place in several areas of the city, plus a few other cities across the UK. The idea of it is that people decorate the windows of their home or business, and when darkness falls they light them up, creating an illuminated artwork, installation or scene. Something to brighten up the dark nights and bring a little light and joy to the cold, gloomy winter.

Maps with the locations of the decorated windows can be picked up from local businesses, and you can follow the map around different areas, spotting the windows as you go. It's a bit like a treasure hunt, but for windows.

There's no overall theme, people can decorate the windows as they wish, allowing a riot of colour and creativity. One of the most touching displays was a street which had themed windows on the human experience-Birth, Life, Love, and Death. The Life one was one of my favourite windows of the whole event, very simple but striking. There were so many great windows, and the standard was so high, that it was really difficult to whittle down my photos for this post!

Some of the windows were a little more irreverent- this one was called "Ladies of the Night-Lights".

Harry Potter seemed to be a pretty popular theme.

There were lots of windows with messages of hope, love, and unity, which seemed extra poignant as literal lights in the darkness.

This window had incredibly detailed natural history themed 3D scenes made from corrugated cardboard. It was amazing, with so many different details to spot.

Around the corner was a heart meltingly cute underwater themed window, complete with KISSING TURTLES which I think you'll agree are one of the best things ever.

Another incredibly detailed and professional looking window was this stunning Alice in Wonderland themed display, which seemed to take up the entire front room of its creator's house!

The most popular window of the night had to be this Lego extravaganza. There was a queue of children trying to get a glimpse.

The final window I saw was this spectacular silhouetted octopus, which covered both storeys of this house! A fittingly impressive end to a pretty magical window hunt.

I also made a video of some of the windows, which gives a better idea of what this event was like.

They were so good and so beyond what I expected! I have to admit though, with some places it was hard to tell whether their window was decorated for the trail or whether they just had interesting stuff and their lights on XD xx

They made me a bit emotional too! Especially the street with the Life window, because apparently that was done as a tribute to someone who had died, and it seemed like a really special way of honouring someone. It was such a lovely event. x